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Technocratic Combine
The Technocratic Combine, also known as the Combine or Technocracy, is a new would-be faction conceived of by ProudAmerikan. Following in the wake of the Confederate revolution, an old US party previously thought dead has been ressurected in the West Coast, originating from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Consisting of numbers of brilliant scientists, engineers, and laboratory experiments, the Technocratic Combine has formed in order to both end the chaos now ravaging the world as well as reject the high-handed theoretical science of the Allies. Science is meant to be used logically and with force, not hypothetically, the Technocrats say, and with the buzzing of cyclotrons and the rumble of their new artillery machines the Combine prepares to march out, and restore absolute order to the world. Though the Combine, like the Confederates, have relatively weak mainline units compared to the other factions, they overcome this in a slightly different way. Unlike the 'cowardly' Confederates, the Combine merely prefers to fight from a longer distance, and thus they focus on artillery and AOE attacks. When working well, they provide a rain of firepower that kills off entire armies before they can even get within firing range. When working poorly.....well, the field testers that work poorly don't come back from missions. Background The Formation The original roots of the Combine lay in the early 20th century after the horrors of the Great War had only just passed....and the Spanish Flu after that. While the first tendrils of thought had been formed by the likes of Edward Bellamy and Thorstein Veblem, sociologists and authors, it was in 1919 that the first true use of the word "Technocracy" was coined, by a Californian engineer named William H. Smyth. Originally meaning the rule of the people by scientists and engineers, the term has since come to mean a society where those in charge of the government are selected based on individual knowledge, not political capital. While there were a few technocratic societies formed after the introduction of the term, they fell very quickly after formation. Then, in 1932, a mysterious man known as The Dean appeared. Swathed in black robes, face hidden by a gas mask, and never showing any amounts of skin, he urged an engineer called Howard Smith to start some meetings in New York, on how technology and science could be used to best structure the government. Soon after, the Technocracy Party was formed. Entirely political, the group would campaign, run their own candidates for local office, and strive to make their views heard. Though unsuccessful in this regard, the tiny party continued to grow slowly, encouraged by the Great Depressipn and its seeming monument to ineffectual governing under the tutelage of The Dean, until by the Mid 1940s the party looked to be on the verge of a possible breakthrough in the political scene. The Collapse Right as the Technocracy Party was about to begin their big push for presidency, however, The Dean vanished. Confusion and chaos happened soon after, and it was discovered that without his strong leadership the Technocrats could not hold themselves together. Ideological differences about how best to implement the Technological Utopia flared up, and splinter factions began to grow in strength. As if that wasn't enough, the party's distinctive red and grey uniform pattern allowed Senator, soon to be President McCarthy, to subtly denounce them as Soviet sympethizers. Soon finding themselves without a support base, and riddled with in-fighting, the Technocracy Party soon broke up, their members scattering back to the four corners of the US. And without the Party, life moved on as usual. The Soviets invaded, and were pushed back. Lawrence Livermore Labs was set up to monitor and reverse-engineer captured Soviet technology, and as the Syndicate and the Allies both discovered a great mass of engineering and scientific genius started popping up all along the West Coast. From Washington to the border of Allied Mexico, great advances in science were made. It was there that scientists discovered how to make cyclotrons, forerunners of the Particle Expeller devices, and how to use Tesla weaponry to power stations, providing cheap power and indirectly helping the Syndicate in their computer technology. There, astronomy was studied, chemicals were synthesized, and the West Coast of the USA became a great leader in the scientific world in practical and physical technology. Even the great Allied scientist Oppenheimer visited it once, commending the scientists doing work there and predicting great things for them. The Rebirth Unfortunately, the invasion of the Empire of the Rising Sun during WW3, combined with Allied suspicion after the truth behind President Ackerman was revealed, caused the numerous laboratories, colleges, and universities throughout the region to suddenly experience a shift in funding. The Allies had decided that the risk was too high for some of the colleges to be fronts for an unknown enemy, and they were still the most powerful influence in the region - even the Sydicate Sprawls, knowing that they could not win in direct combat with Allied power, reluctantly shifted funds from their scientific facilities openly seen. The end result, unfortunately, was outrage. The engineers and scientists had been loyal and proud that their work was beneficial to the Allied cause, and now their budgets were being slashed? And for what, the Europeans? While widespread grumblings and layoffs were all that might have happened, a peculiar event took place In February. The Dean appeared....again. He appeared in front of Earnest Lawrence, and told him that Science and Progress must be achieved, and the Technological Utopia must come, not from passionate appeals to peace, but from cold logical war. On the night the event took place, the Dean revealed blueprints for numerous weapons of war, designed to be easily build able but great in damage potential. He spoke of how the Allies were turning away from the science that Lawrence believed in, that instead of physics and chemistry and biology they were turning to such things as teleportation, freeze rays, and tampering with science - trying to corrupt it for their own purposes. Lawrence agreed, that science must not be used as an end but the means to an end.....and with that, he gave control of his facility to the Dean. Over the next few months, the science labs, colleges, universities, even some of the local engineering departments were visited, converted, and ordered to switch production under the order of The Dean. Around the world, in Syndicate Sprawls, Allied Cities, African work camps, Andean enclaves, and more, there was a brief, very brief takeover of the screen soon after. A black gas mask, hidden within a shroud of black robes, standing against a laboratory. The original name had been removed, the place now renamed "Nucleus Site", and behind the person rows upon rows of doctors, security guards, cameras, and more - all wearing now the black and green of the Combine. The person stood there for a few seconds, before issuing one statement. "Everyone who wishes freedom from chaos, political nonsense, and concepts of a higher state than life is our friend. Everyone else.....is our enemy." And with that, the screens returned to normal, and the world knew the face of the Technocratic Combine. Unique Faction Mechanics The Technocratic Combine is unusual in that only a few buildings are needed to build all their units and defenses on the field. The Central Laboratory, Testing Facility,Field University, Sealab, and Security Outpost are the only buildings besides Superweapons and Energy/Ore refineries used by them, and they expand by Field Technicians out to build Research Colleges. The Combine techs up by building. While the Research College builds into any of the four unit-producing buidlings, each of the others tech up similar to Empire Buildings. However, though the Security Outpost builds the Superweapons, they must be first unlocked, one by one, through the Central Laboratory. Every Laboratory must be teched up seperately to allow Superweapon building within it's radius. Buildings themselves are constructed in two parts. In the first half, a building will be built to full health right there in the field; in the second half, the building must wait while safety tests, certifications, and appropriate lab equipment are done or moved in. Units, however, are built as normal. Buildings and Units Buildings Infantry .